Rains have gently fallen and the fields are green. Horses are traveling about the country for breeding, showing, or trail riding. Semen is becoming a Fed Ex favorite cargo. Foals are frolicking, and visitors from around the world come to the United States to see and buy horses. Mosquitoes are laying eggs in all the stagnant water they can find, potentially creating the next West Nile outbreak. EPM-carrying opossums are scurrying about trying to catch up on food from the winter. (Dropped or scattered horse feed is a favorite meal.) That semen could be bringing equine viral arteritis (EVA) to your farm–no extra charge. Those visitors could be typhoid Marys, carrying foot and mouth disease from European countries on their feet or clothing.

For West Nile, you should work to reduce the risk of infection. Get rid of anything that holds water that isn’t necessary and could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Keep horses stalled during dawn and dusk–mosquito feeding times. Use repellants to fight mosquitoes. Carefully monitor older or debilitated horses as they are at greatest risk in endemic areas; if they do get West Nile, they’ll have a difficult time surviving.

Most of all, keep up with the news on West Nile. Experts in the field warn that this disease will spread. Horse owners in the Northeast know what it is like to wonder each day if their area–or their horses–are going to be attacked by this deadly disease. Ohio expects West Nile to hit this summer; Kentucky could be this year or next year. (One good note: The latest research showed that horses which get the disease cannot pass the virus on to feeding mosquitoes. Horses don’t amplify or serve as hosts to the virus.)

If you are breeding your mares via artificial insemination, make sure the semen has been tested free of EVA. There is a safe vaccine and management protocol for EVA that nearly eliminates the risk of illness or death